Family CEO mentoring and post‐CEO succession performance

Family succession and firm performance: Evidence from Italian family firms

This paper develops a conceptual corporate governance (CG) framework to address the persistent challenge of real earnings management (REM) in emerging markets, focusing on Malaysia. Despite regulatory reforms, REM remains pervasive due to enforcement gaps, concentrated ownership, and market pressures. Chief executive officer (CEO) succession, particularly involving early-tenure or heir-apparent appointments, heightens the risk of REM by exposing transitional governance weaknesses. The purpose of this study is to examine how the company secretaries’ commercial attributes (CSCOMM) may moderate these risks. Drawing on agency theory and resource dependence theory (RDT), the framework highlights financial expertise, strategic insight, risk management capacity, and governance engagement as attributes that enhance oversight. By extending Kakabadse et al.’s (2016) attribute model and building on recent insights by Khalidi et al. (2025), the paper advances the conceptualisation of company secretaries as both governance resources and internal control agents. The framework contributes to theory by clarifying the moderating role of CSCOMM on CEO succession and REM, and to practice by offering guidance for boards, regulators, and professional accountancy bodies. It also outlines an agenda for empirical research on Malaysian public-listed companies (PLCs), thereby informing governance reforms in emerging markets.

CEO succession decision in family businesses – A corporate governance perspective

Inside the Family Firm: The Role of Families in Succession Decisions and Performance

To mitigate the potential adverse effects of corporate misconduct, firms often dismiss the chief executive officer (CEO) and appoint an outsider. Such actions are commonly interpreted as signals of firms’ commitment to reducing the likelihood of future misconduct. However, empirical findings linking misconduct to CEO turnover remain inconsistent. We argue that this inconsistency stems from a general neglect of nuances in both the nature of misconduct and directors’ oversight roles. We theorize that variation in CEO attribution based on misconduct type and firm performance helps explain these dismissal and appointment decisions. We test our arguments by distinguishing between two types of misconduct—CEO personal misconduct, where attribution is higher, and firm-level financial misconduct, where attribution is lower. Analyzing 59 CEO personal misconduct events matched by industry, firm size, and time period to 324 financial misconduct events, we find that these dismissal and appointment decisions are shaped by misconduct type, with firm performance moderating these relationships.

Exploring the intricacies of heterogeneity in tax avoidance practices within family firms, a growing trend acknowledges the significant role of chief executive officers (CEOs) in setting the ethical tone and shaping corporate tax strategies. However, these studies often overlook the influence of the CEO’s transgenerational orientation, which becomes crucial when assessing ethics in family businesses. Therefore, the paper aims to analyse to what extent the CEO’s transgenerational responsibility (the moral obligation that incumbent leaders have vis-à-vis next generation family members) affects tax avoidance with a utilitarianism lens. Relying on a sample of 272 firm-year observations of Italian listed family companies along the period 2014–2018, the panel regression model finds a positive relationship. Moreover, the involvement in the business of the next generation of family members strengthens this relationship, suggesting that the immediate proximity with other relatives fosters the conversion of the CEO’s transgenerational responsibility into tax avoidance practices. Finally, when the family firm is in financial distress, CEOs with greater transgenerational responsibility tend to avoid more taxes.

Succession in family firms is an extremely difficult and complex event in which advisors are often involved or sought. Advisors, especially business consultants, frequently play an important role in shaping and guiding such complex strategic processes. Nevertheless, it is not clear whether and to what extent the involvement of advisors, especially business consultants, in family firm succession impact the outcome of succession planning processes, such as the choice of the next chief executive officer (CEO). We explore whether family-owner socioemotional wealth, measured through their level of commitment to the firm, influences the preference for a family CEO versus a nonfamily CEO and acceptance of the advisor role in the succession planning process. We test the research questions on a sample of family firms located in the United States.

Purpose This study aims to examine the unique nature of family firms by investigating the moderating effect of chief executive officer (CEO) identity on CEO career horizon and the auditor’s client risk assessment. Consistent with literature on family businesses, the level of CEO attachment to socio-emotional wealth (SEW) varies among family businesses. Design/methodology/approach This study used a longitudinal sample of 2,063 non-financial family firm-year observations from 2005 to 2016 listed on the Bursa Malaysia. The study used the general method of moments (GMM), which controls for endogeneity concerns. Findings The results reveal that, without the moderating effect of CEO identity, the relationship between CEO career horizon and auditor’s risk assessment is positive, which suggests that the auditor’s risk perception of retiring CEOs is very high. However, the interaction of CEO identity reverses the relationship as evidenced by the negative and significant coefficient on the interacted terms. The finding suggests that the auditor’s perceived risk associated with CEO career horizon is lower in family firms with CEOs affiliated to family members or in which the CEO has an equity stake. Overall, the findings provide compelling evidence that the extent of the CEO’s attachment to the firm’s SEW affects the auditor’s client risk assessment. Practical implications The findings of the study serve as an enlightenment to policymakers such as Bursa Malaysia and Security Commission that within the family-controlled firms, differences still exist; therefore, there might be a need for future regulatory initiative to cater for the specific need of family-controlled firms. Originality/value The study contributes to prior literature by departing from the agency theory adopted in previous studies on auditor choice in family firms under the assumption that family firms are homogenous.

This study employs structural equationmodeling (LISREL 8.0) to investigate a model of therelationship between chief executive officer (CEO) joband life satisfaction, as well as the relationshipbetween CEO job and life satisfaction and firmperformance. Consistent with recent research, ourmodel also includes several potential mediators of thejob/life satisfaction relationship – overall stress,work conflict, nonwork conflict, and nonworksatisfaction. We rely on questionnaire data from 221owner/managers of family owned and controlledautomobile dealerships. Results indicate that CEO joband life satisfaction are more strongly correlatedthan among average American workers, as predicted, butthat there is no moderator effect on firm performance.Nor does life satisfaction mediate the relationshipbetween job satisfaction and firm performance.Contrary to theory, there are no significantrelationships with firm performance. Theorganizational implications of CEO satisfaction forfirm performance are considered.

A clear picture of the influential drivers of private family firm performance has proven to be an elusive target. The unique characteristics of private family owned firms necessitate a broader, non-financial approach to reveal firm performance drivers. This research study sought to specify and evaluate the themes that distinguish successful family firms from less successful family firms. In addition, this study explored the possibility that these themes collectively form an effective organizational culture that improves longer-term firm performance. At an organizational level of analysis, research findings identified four significant variables: Shared Vision (PNS), Role Clarity (RCL), Confidence in Management (CON), and Professional Networking (OLN) that positively impacted family firm financial performance. Shared Vision exhibited the strongest positive influence among the significant factors. In addition, Family Functionality (APGAR), the functional integrity of the family itself, exhibited a significant supporting role. Taken together, the variables collectively represent an effective family business culture (EFBC) that positively impacted the long-term financial sustainability of family owned firms. The index of effective family business culture also exhibited potential as a predictive non-financial model of family firm performance.

Chief executive officers (CEOs) have a substantial influence on the decision-making processes of the top management team (TMT) and the performance of the firm in general, and this influence is particularly important in small-sized family firms. By integrating research on CEO qualities and the CEO–TMT interface to explain how they interact in ways that drive firm performance, we provide a first attempt to highlight the importance of CEO capacity to implement decisions that were made following a comprehensive process (i.e., strategic decision comprehensiveness, SDC) for the performance of small-sized family firms. In so doing, we provide a micro-foundation lens and also direct research attention to decision implementation, a key issue in the field of strategic management, which unfortunately has relatively been overlooked in the extant literature. Results of multisource survey data collected from CEOs and TMT members of 131 small-sized family firms indicate a positive interaction effect between CEO implementation capacity, the TMT SDC, and the performance of small-sized family firms.

Previous studies suggest that the relationship between strategic change and firm performance depends on the organizational conditions under which the change is initiated and implemented. An important organizational condition that is salient in understanding the performance effect of strategic change is executive leadership. Focusing on outside succession among family businesses in an emerging economy, this study attempts to understand the role of outside chief executive officers (CEOs) on the firm's innovative and internationalization efforts. Based on interviews with 110 small and medium‐sized family companies in Malaysia, this study found that functional and process upgrading strategies depend not only on the firms’ internal and external sourcing strategies but also is moderated by the international experience of the outside CEO. Focusing on both financial and nonfinancial performance outcomes, the mediating effect of internationalization on the relationship between innovation and performance found mixed results. Findings suggest a fully mediating effect between process innovations and financial performance while a fully and partially mediating effect was observed for the relationships between product innovation and process innovation and nonfinancial performance, respectively. Finally, the interaction between international experience of outside CEOs and firm's degree of internationalization (DOI) is positively related to both financial and nonfinancial performance suggesting that the internationalization‐performance relationship is strengthened when an outside CEO possesses greater international experience. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This paper tests the moderating role of firm age on the relationship between Chief Executive Officer (CEO) duality and financial performance among manufacturing firms in Uganda. A cross section survey was adopted using 78 manufacturing firms in Uganda. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation and hierarchical regression. Modgraph software was also used to ascertain the validity of the set hypothesis. Results reveal that whether the CEO doubles as chairman of board or not, this does not significantly affect firm Financial Performance. However, as the firms grow older, the role of CEO-Board Chairman duality phenomenon gains significance in determining financial performance. Therefore, as firms grow in age, the CEOs should not be the same as Board chairpersons if firms have to perform well financially. Since only a single research methodological approach was employed in this study, future research can undertake to use a mixed methods approach to provide more detailed insights. Further, a longitudinal approach can also be employed to study financial performance trends among manufacturing firms over years. Entrepreneurs of these firms should put emphasis on proper segregation of the CEO role and those of the board chairman especially as firms grow in age. A moderating role of firm age on the relationship between CEO duality and financial performance was tested among manufacturing firms; previous studies have tended to test the direct or mediating effects.

Existing literature has examined several viewpoints in the field of family business research. Nevertheless, the correlation between strategy and performance in family enterprises has not been extensively studied. Furthermore, the extent to which family influence impacts the link between strategy and performance is not well-defined. The distinguishing factor between family businesses and non-family businesses is the concept of familiness, which refers to the unique qualities and talents that stem from family influence. The current body of research focuses on examining the moderating influence of familiness on the link between strategy and performance in family businesses. This study focuses on examining the impact of business strategy on the development of exceptional performance in family firms. Additionally, it investigates if familiness has a moderating function in this connection. This study aims to conduct an empirical analysis of the connection between strategy and performance in family-owned businesses. Additionally, it seeks to investigate the influence of familiness as a moderating factor in this relationship. The research population consists of individuals who own or manage family businesses. A total of 203 owners/managers were chosen using a simple random sample method from the family businesses located in Multan. Data were obtained using a cross-sectional survey, and the hypothetico-deductive technique was employed in the research design. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was utilized for assessing data. The research findings suggest a direct correlation between familiness and the performance of family businesses. The results also reveal that familiness moderates the association between family business strategy and family company performance. The findings of this research have crucial significance for family company owners/managers by underlining the fact that family business strategy’s influence on family business performance may be strengthened by concentrating on the aspects of familiness; power, experience, and culture. This research also contributes to the family business literature by evaluating the moderating influence of familiness on the strategy-performance relationship in a family company setting.

We study the effect of chief executive officer (CEO) extraversion on CEO pay. Integrating research on personality and career outcomes, we theorize that CEO’s pay and other career related outcomes will differ across more and less extraverted CEOs. We collected longitudinal data on a sample of 3,149 unique CEOs from 1,703 S&P 1500 firms from 2003 to 2013. To measure personality traits of CEOs, we used computerized text analysis on the language spoken by CEOs in the discussion portion of the quarterly earnings conference calls over a multi-year period (2003 to 2013). We find that, in comparison to less extraverted CEOs, more extraverted CEOs earn a significantly higher pay, they also earn higher relative pay vis-à-vis other top managers in the firm, and are also more likely to become first-time CEOs at a younger age. A one-unit increase in CEO extraversion is associated with a $233,260 increase in CEO’s total pay. Moreover, the effect of CEO extraversion on CEO pay is partially mediated by the size of CEO’s board network. Finally, consistent with the better fit explanation of the effect of CEO extraversion on CEO pay, we find that CEO extraversion has a positive impact on firm performance.